I work with businesses of all shapes and sizes, and I have noticed that the one thing they all share is the desire to do right by the customer.
Ah, isn’t that nice!
But despite this noble goal, many businesses struggle to achieve global accolades.
Let me tell you a story about two churches and
As you know, Easter is a significant holiday in the Christian calendar, and churches usually focus on getting new people in during this time. To attract people to their events, they need to create marketing collateral like flyers. The production team generally starts planning and designing the Easter flyers in February, but Church A and Church B woke up late to the party, with only three weeks before Easter, and realised they needed to get marketing collateral out quickly.
The designer at both churches created beautifully articulated graphics that were printed and handed out the following Sunday. But both organisations made a critical mistake – they assumed the design guy had a sign-off process, so it was all good, right?
WRONG!
The designs were sent out to the public, and they were missing one CRITICAL piece of information – the address!
Church A is part of a larger organisation, and to be more efficient, the parent company created one flyer for all campuses. The problem is that non-church-attending folk won’t know where said church is.
Church B thought they had it covered with a QR code on the flyer that contained the location. The problem is that many of the surrounding community were middle-aged to mature, so not everyone would know how to use the QR code.
Both organisations made the same mistake – they did not think about their customers.
When we think of our customers in broad terms (e.g., our car insurance is for anyone with a car), we create vanilla products and services that meet some need, but by no means does it differentiate or stand out from the crowd.
I bet you’re laughing at these organisations and thinking, “really, guys, that’s so simple!”
But let me ask you – have you made the same mistake in your business?
I know I have!
So how do we prevent this customer faux pas from happening in our business?
We need to take the time to truly understand our customer, who the person is, what they care about, and how they go about getting solutions to their problems.
This is not a quick exercise of creating a persona card that you pass to marketing and file in file 13. No, this is a commitment to understanding the people who trust you with their money.
Taking the time to honour them by connecting with them and walking a mile, or even ten, in their shoes.
Only then can we earn the right to their praise.
That is when you become magnetic, and that is when your business matters!
If you want to learn more about how to truly understand your customer and grow your business beyond your wildest dreams, I invite you to join me and a few industry experts online or in person at the Business With Altitude Summit from 9-11 May 2023.
From strategic alignment to creating memorable customer experiences, leveraging brand and technology for growth, and leadership development, the summit offers practical solutions and strategies to help you succeed.
In-person seats are limited, so don’t wait. Visit https://bit.ly/3IZghlA to secure your spot today.
Remember, the key to success in business is understanding your customers.
Join me at the Business With Altitude Summit and take your business to new heights!